Chasing Chase

Amazing afternoon in waikanae - a beach just 1 hr north of us. Our AMAZING sponsor family (Marla, Paul and chase) showed us their favorite spot at the beach and we enjoyed a nice Chinese take-away dinner watching the sunset. Charlie ADORES chase and we are sad that they are moving back tO dc next week. At one point chase stripped down to his undies and went from splashing in the water to rolling around in the sand making snow angels. We will be back!

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Small Group

Have I mentioned lately how much I love our church in Wellington?! We are so blessed with such an incredible church family. We are thankful to host a small group at our apartment so that we can both attend while the boys sleep (or at least lurk). I was feeling SO gloomy all day - and I just didn't want to see anyone - I really just wanted to climb in bed and read my new Lord of the Rings book. It was SO WONDERFUL to meet with The body of Christ. I felt really transformed by the end of the night - praise God! I whipped up a batch of Libby's pumpkin bread (I still have 8 cans of pumpkin I need to use up). As we enter autumn, I plan to cook all sorts of yummy fall dishes.


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Happy Belated Aldous!

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My Niece

My niece is due in 3 weeks but Emily is already feeling some contractions. Early labor perhaps? Aldous was 10 days early - so maybe she is just one of the lucky ones with a little shorter pregnancy... Probably best not to get one's hopes set on that but excited that she is getting so close! I think Charlie's pretend play below is actually a reoccurring nightmare of mine...

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Buzz Cuts Part 2

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Buzz Cuts

Jason took Charlie to the barbers with Patrick and Grayson. Two of the four came back with buzz cuts. Pics will follow tomorrow... - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Hot Cross Buns

 

I never really knew what hot cross buns were. Growing up I remember learning to play the song on the recorder or piano (maybe my french horn?).  Our friend frequently makes reference to baking them - but we've never tried them  I was grocery shopping in Moore Wilson's (not sure if I mentioined before - but my favorite grocery store in Wellington - a hybrid between Trader Joes, Whole Foods and Costco) this afternoon and picked up a 1/2 dozen of them.  We warmed them and ate them with tea - a truly British affair.    I learned tonight that it is common to eat hot cross buns on Good Friday.  The cross on the buns signifies the Jesus' cross.  

Charlie and I got silly after eating our hot cross buns.  This dance reminds me of the HOURS we spent dancing to Grandma Dot's crazy floral bird music box thingy in the living room.  I think I resurrected a few of the moves in this video.  :) 



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Hours of fun (for mama) - thanks nana!

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Am I the worst mom in the world?

I was enjoying 5 minutes of peace and quiet (too quiet in retrospect) while Charlie used the potty before bedtime. Charlie came out of our bathroom with a bloody chin. He tried to shave just like his daddy. Poor little dude! Lots of questions tonight about who gets to shave what when....















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C. Ronaldo

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Nappies and Rat Tails

Charlie was basically daytime "potty" trained by the age two. Poop training was another larger hurdle as he seemed to only poop in his sleep and it was "too hard" (lots of tears, pushing, squats, books, videos, even child-friendly laxatives) to poop on the potty. One day he realized it wasn't that hard and around his third birthday he was poop trained. We are on the last hurdle - nighttime and napping potty training. We almost exclusively cloth diapered Charlie but I was so grossed out by his "big boy" poopy diapers (remember he ONLY pooped in his sleep) that I moved to disposables for sleeping. Now that he is "poop trained" I've wanted to move him back to cloth. I know he will very soon sleep in undies, but we ran out of disposables and I decided to get 2 cloth pull up nappies (diapers) instead of restocking as Liam can use them also when it's time. We bought the Bum Genius PottyTrainers and so far I really like them. Charlie can pull them on and off himself and remove the absorbent insert (he complains that it is wet and gross - yeah no kidding buddy). He really saturates the one insert - but it doesn't usually go through to his pjs. They aren't cheap at $37 for a liner and 5 inserts but it beats endless disposables. And I love to get his little tushie back into cloth - you just can't get cuter!!!



On an unrelated noted - thoughts on rat tails??? They are somewhat trendy here and I think it would be sort of cute on Charlie. We desperately miss Maria's haircuts and I am going to brave it with the scissors this weekend. If we are destined to have 6 sons, at $20 a cut, I need to learn how to cut boy's hair.

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Chore Chart

We recently started a chore chart with Charlie. Growing up, I remember how hard my mom worked to implement chore charts for us four daughters but they never caught on (am I remembering this correctly?). Anyway this is week two of our chore chart with Charlie and it seems to be working. In theory, I want Charlie to develop intrinsic motivation for his behavior vs extrinsic. I found the real power of the chart is more that it spells out a routine for Charlie of things that he can accomplish all by himself. I like that it is flexible and we can adjust it as he develops. His rewards are smiley faces and at the end of the week a star sticker. Charlie is a typical first-born - striving to please us - so it doesn't take much. Jason and I joke that we want a sticker chart for or chores around the house. Before Charlie (and even before Liam) we relished our freedom to not be tied down to evening chores. That being said, I find that we are falling behind in things and hopelessly trying to play catch up al week. My biggest current goal is to have a nice dinner on the table by 530pm so we can have quality family time in the evening and not a chaotic scramble to bed.

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Casualties

Sorry for the gross post, I'm not even really sure why I'm writing about this.  That being said, I lost 2 toenails this week.  I lose my "pointer" toenails quite often when long distance running because that toe is longer than my big toe.  We were out on Saturday night and I was feeling all cute dressed up in my skinny jeans and cowboy boots, when I felt a "rock" in my sock and fished out my toenail.  It's gross, but it is also cool to see the brand new nail - all fresh and clean - replace the old injured nail.  I should be able to get a pedicure in ~6 months - yay!






It was fun to torture Jason and Charlie with my toenail, but Jason has done his fair share of torturing.  He kept a silver dollar sized blister on the night stand for a few days last week.




My husband is also amazingly faithful with his mouth guard that replaced his post-braces retainer a few years ago.  That being said, I just don't think the mouth guard is looking good...  What is that on it??? Does anyone else wear a mouth guard with similar problems?   He has a great job, so I think we are due a dentist visit for a replacement guard!


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Anticipating April's Harvest Festival

We've really enjoyed the last few weeks in Wellington.  Wellington is truly feeling like home, and honestly I pinch myself every day - I feel very thankful to be here!   We finished an exciting week of prayer at our church.  The church setup a 24/7 prayer room about 20 minutes drive north from our home.   We signed up for a 1-hr session as a family, and I  brought the boys to a few 1-hr sessions during the week.  In so many odd ways, Wellington feels so much like my  college days in Boston.   This is mainly due to the strong community we've experienced.  The following are located within a 5-minute walk from our home: Jason's work, Charlie's preschool, my work, our doctor, grocery store, 2 parks, the waterfront, our church plant building, our babysitters, 14 coffee shops (exaggeration - but not by much).  Many friendships have quickly blossomed with Jason's work, our church and the expat American community in Wellington.   I think this is a really precious season in our lives - and I'm thankful!

Autumn is upon us and it is strange to think about April Harvest Festivals.  In my "northern hemisphere" thinking, I've equated springtime with Easter as NEW LIFE is springing up everywhere!  My brain constantly feels twisted with opposite seasons, but Wellington's temperate (i.e. San Francisco) climate doesn't really offer intensely distinct seasons.


We really enjoy after-work runs along the waterfront as a family (especially for the last few weeks before Daylight Savings Time in NZ).   Here are some pics from a park about 1.25 (okay exactly) miles from our home.    

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Whiplash and stuff

A "weather bomb" hit last weekend and cancelled our Wellington Embassy Amazing Race.  I've never heard the term, but I think it is probably the equivalent of a tropical storm???  We were all set to dominate the race as Jason and I teamed up with Patrick and Jessica Carroll on Team Flat White Fury.  As it turned out the weather wasn't that bad (Jason was afraid Charlie was going to be blown off the face of the earth on a stop to the grocery storm - but there were really no casualties).  We still had a babysitter scheduled for the day so Jason and I went on a nice date to a french cafe and watched a matinee at the Wellington International Arts Festival.  It took place at the marae (Maori Meeting House) just down the road from our house.  The play was called Tu and it was EXCELLENT.   It told the story of a Maori family in Wellington in the 1940s who lost many sons to WWII in Europe.  Really phenomenal.  I guess we missed Sir Ian McKellan at the previous evening's performance.  

We had beautiful weather this past Saturday (1 week after the weather bomb).  I got to take a 4-star General's wife around Wellington for the afternoon while Jason babysat (ahem - parented) the boys.  It was fun to show off our gorgeous city.  I'm hoping I can add it to my performance report for my Air Force reserve duty...   After the boys' naps we went for a run along the waterfront, played in the sand, and then met our friends for fish and chips at the beach. 

Finally, our AMAZING sponsor family at the Embassy is heading back to DC.  They have a 4  year old son Chase (mentioned earlier) and they gave us all of his hand-me-downs.   I really miss garage sales in the US and it was so fun to get all of her goodies.  I wasn't the only one excited about the new stuff!  

 Liam played with this basketball thing for hours straight.  

He loves to dance to the music and he just keeps shooting baskets over and over. 

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Dad and International Women's Day

Cocoa Beach 2009

I didn't realize that March 8th was the International Women's Day holiday until I was in Moscow, Russia studying abroad in 2001.   All I really remember was a party at the program coordinator's home where each lady took a turn sitting in a chair and one of the male students in our group gave us a rose.  It was sweet, but a little awkward. 

Moscow 2001

I find it a little ironic that my dad shares a birthday with International Women's Day.  Growing up 1 of 4 daughters, I became accustomed to people commenting on how it was a pity dad never had a son.  Each of us had boy names (I think I was actually off the hook - but Joseph and Alex were possible names for the younger girls).   We even joked that our two cats growing up were girls.   I remember trying so hard to be interested when dad took me into his "man cave" and showed me how to change the oil in my car.    The truth is we really adored our dad growing up.  I think he had it pretty good.  :)   (sans the clogged shower drain - SORRY dad!)

Anyway - I'm so glad your "man kingdom" is growing with the addition of 3 amazing sons-in-law and 4 gorgeous grandsons - wow!  I don't usually do birthday shout-outs on the blog - but I want to let you know I love you and I hope you have an amazing birthday.  

Colorado 2007

Washington, D.C. 2007

Awkward Family Photo

Undies Part II

Sandbox

When we found out we were moving to an apartment in the city I was so bummed out that the kids wouldn't have a Sandbox. Secretly I really don't like sandboxes as the primary mission of any toddler is to empty the box of all of it's sand. Here is our new "urban" sandbox! Much better!!!

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Undies Part I

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Marmite and Lemon-Pears

Liam got to hang out with his buddy Rohan this morning.


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